Case Number 27246

KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1963) (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

"King Kong can't make a monkey out of us!"

Opening Statement

Ask someone to name a gigantic, city-destroying movie monster, and they'll
likely say either King Kong or Godzilla. In 1963, Toho Studios took a cue from
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and the other Universal horror
"crossover" movies that followed by bringing cinema's two biggest titans
together in a single movie, and then having them smack each other around. It's
King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Facts of the Case

United Nations scientists are researching a newly-discovered South American
berry that provides miraculous growth properties. Elsewhere, an inventor has
developed a new super-strong fishline-thin wire that...nobody cares about any of
this, because here comes Godzilla!

Godzilla emerges from an iceberg, where we last left him in 1955's
Godzilla Raids Again, and he immediately sets about rampaging against
Japan, knocking over power lines and melting tanks. Elsewhere, explorers in
South America have discovered a lost tribe who worship an even more amazing
discovery, the giant ape King Kong.

While politicos and scientists debate whether to use the atom bomb to stop
Godzilla, which might destroy all of Japan as well, as risky plan is put into
action transport -- King Kong around the globe and put him in Godzilla's path.
Is the ape's strength enough to send Godzilla back to the ocean?

The Evidence

Has there ever been a movie with more unconfirmed rumors and speculation
surrounding it than King Kong vs. Godzilla? A quick internet search finds
folks saying the following...

* There are two endings, one where Kong wins and one where Godzilla
wins.

* There's another alternate ending where it's left ambiguous as to who
wins.

* There's yet another, made-for-American-television version of the film with
American actors edited into it, like what they did with Raymond Burr in the
original Godzilla.

* Filmmaker Miriam Cooper and special effects whiz Willis O'Brien, who
created the original King Kong, were at one point involved in the
production.

* The monsters were originally going to be depicted with stop-motion
animation instead of men in suits, but that proved too expensive.

* The movie was originally going to be Godzilla versus Frankenstein, using
the weirdballs Frankie from Toho's Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.

Is any of this true? Nobody frickin' knows! No one can agree on the why and
how this film was made. I was hoping that, with this new Blu-ray, someone at
Toho and/or Universal would finally come clean about the movie's history,
finally setting the facts straight after all these years. Unfortunately, King
Kong vs. Godzilla's Blu-ray is a stock catalog release, with no bonus
features or anything. I know a lot of you are already preparing emails for me
saying you know the real story, but before you hit send, know that somebody out
there on the internet is going to disagree with you. Talk amongst yourselves.
With the film's background a black hole of speculation, all we're left with is
this one (only?) version of the film itself.

King Kong vs. Godzilla is only the third Godzilla movie, and
therefore occupies an interesting space in the series. As we all know, the first
Godzilla -- or Gojira if you insist -- was a horror film, with the
big G as the scary monster. In time, however, Godzilla became a hero, defending
humanity from other monsters. In this movie, still early in the series, Godzilla
is very much the villain, despite his star status. Godzilla is pure destruction,
marching toward Tokyo, and he must be stopped. This is single driving force of
the plot. This puts Godzilla firmly in antagonist mode, with King Kong serving
as protagonist, overcoming obstacles and whatnot in pursuit of this goal.

A huge portion of the movie is a remake of the original King Kong,
with explorers in a Skull Island-like jungle environment, complete with Kong
held behind a massive wooden door. The "natives" are Asian actors in blackface,
which is all kinds of awful, but on the plus side, there's a nice buildup to
Kong's first appearance. There's also a secondary monster attack, when a giant
octopus tears up the jungle. This was done with trick photography, by filming a
normal octopus so that it looks like it's towering over the actors. The result,
although obvious, is effective, in the way the animal slithers and squishes
about all slimy and gross. Later, when Kong reaches Japan, there's another
callback in which the ape carries around a woman like he once did with Fay Wray.
The woman is the human main character's sister and not his love interest, a
telling clue of how the Godzilla series would become more family-friendly in the
future.

The monsters might be the marquee stars, but we've still got to have those
pesky human characters. The inventor is our main human protagonist, whose
high-tech wires come in handy later in the film. The two jungle explorers do a
lot of Abbott and Costello-style comedy shtick, another example of the series
taking steps toward being geared for kids. These characters are fine, the ones
that really bring the movie down are the newscasters. Throughout the movie,
exposition is provided by not one but several TV reporters, often telling us
what we just saw or saying random lines like, "Godzilla is on the move again." I
wonder what it's like for an actor to have to deliver lines about Godzilla with
deadly seriousness, but that's just what these guys do.

Enough about humans. Let's talk about the big monster rumble! How's the
fighting? Well, if you know your Godzilla movies, you know what to expect. Once
the two square off (at the 53-minute mark) there's a lot of lumbering and
stumbling about rather than punches thrown. This is partially to depict the
gigantic size of the creatures, and partially because the stunt performers have
limited mobility and visibility in those costumes. Kong's signature move is to
pick up boulders and hurl them at Godzilla. Godzilla, demonstrating why he's a
movie star, uses his tail to swat the boulders back, as if he's playing tennis.
Kong is later randomly given electro-powers to even the odds, and the two
finally exchange blows, taking down some buildings as they do so. It's a decent
monster brawl, but it's often interrupted by those newscasters, and it ends
abruptly. Just when you think it's building to something, it's over. The folks
at Toho got a lot better at these fights once the likes of MechaGodzilla came
along, but this one's still fun for what it is.

The picture quality on Universal's King Kong vs. Godzilla (Blu-ray)
varies. Presented in 2.35:1/1080p HD widescreen, some shots (especially
outdoors) are rough and grainy, but other moments, such as the monsters
appearing before the dark blue sky, look much more clear, with surprisingly good
detail. The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track is decent, but lacks the booming "wall
of sound" experience we want from our giant monster flicks. As noted above, it
really hurts not having bonus features. It might be cheesy, but it's nonetheless
a historically important film, and deserves better treatment than this.

Closing Statement

A lot of folks joke about the special effects in these Godzilla movies look
fake. They do, but what we're seeing here is an evolution from horror/sci-fi
into the "giant monster movie" becoming a genre of its own. In this genre (or
subgenre, or sub-subgenre, or whatever) the rubber suits, plastic models, and
slow, clunky action are part of the language of why these films are so beloved
and still have fans all these years later. King Kong vs. Godzilla helped
pave the way for this style of film, and further established its two leads as
the biggest, baddest monsters of all time.